CPAP insomnia

[sleepyinmississippi]

Hi everyone.
I know theres a CPAP-mask insomnia blog URL on this site. But if anyone who's dealt with (and overcome) CPAP insomnia could post their own stories on this thread, that would be appreciated!
I had one successful night with the CPAP mask on--and now I'm unable to fall asleep with it on.
For better or for worse, I'll be getting prescription sleeping pills later in the week (which I don't like as a first-resort, but that's what I'm stuck with.)
If you all could post here and help out, I'd appreciate it!

[VikingGnome]

How long have you been on CPAP? It is no unusual for some people to get used to having the mask on their face. You can try wearing just the mask while you watch TV everyday for a week. Then try with CPAP attached to get used to the air blowing through your mask.

What kind of mask? Sometimes a different kind of mask can make the difference. Update your equipment listing with mask info.

[Sloop]

For better or for worse, I'll be getting prescription sleeping pills later in the week (which I don't like as a first-resort, but that's what I'm stuck with.)

No -- you are not stuck with it. Forget the prescription sleep aids. They are dangerous as all get out. I could write a book on how my wife almost died a year ago. She was in a coma for 5 days, intensive care for 10. All because of Ambien and how it made her so unconcious that she did not wake when she got sick and vomited. Aspirated into her lungs. Septic shock and aspiration pneumonia.

Go get some Melatonin -- SUBLINGUAL (under the tongue). You'll be asleep within 5 minutes.

[avi123]

For better or for worse, I'll be getting prescription sleeping pills later in the week (which I don't like as a first-resort, but that's what I'm stuck with.)

No -- you are not stuck with it. Forget the prescription sleep aids. They are dangerous as all get out. I could write a book on how my wife almost died a year ago. She was in a coma for 5 days, intensive care for 10. All because of Ambien and how it made her so unconcious that she did not wake when she got sick and vomited. Aspirated into her lungs. Septic shock and aspiration pneumonia.

Go get some Melatonin -- SUBLINGUAL (under the tongue). You'll be asleep within 5 minutes.

Comment,

Sorry Sloop, but I doubt it that it was from Ambien. Zolpidem (generic Ambien) is recommened to patients with Central Sleep Apnea Syndrome for better sleep .

Check it here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2670330/

and here:

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/304967-medication

and here:

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare ... rders/3594

I with my OSA, also took 10 mg Zolpidem when I started with CPAP about two years ago.

[nanwilson]

Hi
robysue is our insomnia expert, she is the gal you should be talking to. Do a member search for her and then click on her blog at the bottom left side of her page.

[sleepyinmississippi]

Thanks to all who replied.
HEre are my answers to your questions: I have a Phillips Respironic EasyLife Mask. I've been on CPAP for a month--but have only gotten serious about using it within the last week (hence the insomnia.) Prior to that, I would put on my mask, and take it off an hour or 2 later when I'd be unable to sleep--and I'd leave it off and go to sleep.
I will look for melantonin at the local pharmacy. I assume it's not a prescription pill?
And I will definitely look at Robysue's post/blog again

[Pugsy]

Melatonin is available without a prescription.
Do google its side effects though. Just because it is OTC doesn't mean that it is without some unwanted side effects for some people. It works wonderfully for some people and for some people it creates problems.
Look up the side effects...if you experience any of them then you will need to discontinue. I happened to have the unwanted side effect of vertigo with it....bad vertigo not just a little and that was with the tiniest dose available.

Ambien is relatively benign with really bad side effects being minimal for most people. It is prescribed for people to help them get to sleep during a sleep study. There are of course some unwanted side effects for some people...read up on them also.

Pretty much anything we take can be problematic for some people...not all people though.
As with any meds (RX or OTC) discuss with your physician your concerns and goals.

[robysue]

Chiming in at last.

First on sleep medications: Be they OTC or prescription, some folks will react badly to any medication and sleep meds are no exceptions. The truth of the matter is most people can take most stuff that's prescribed or bought OTC for a short term without serious harm as long as they follow the instructions. But a few folks will run into problems. And a few folks (like myself) seem to have the bad luck to reacting poorly to many, many classes of medications. (At least I now know why I have this problem---I've got a couple of gene mutations on genes that code for enzymes used in metabolizing many drugs, either directly or indirectly.)

As for which is safer or more benign---Ambien or Melatonin? The answer is, "It depends."

For me, Ambien will knock me right out, but there was some evidence on the handful of isolated nights that I took it I was doing some interesting behavior in my sleep. Nothing really alarming, but nonetheless I apparently both took my mask off AND put it back on in my sleep the first night I took Ambien. And put it on rather badly I might add. All told I took Ambien maybe four or five times during my first month on the War on Insomnia before requesting a switch to Sonata for "emergency"purposes. And what I by "emergency" purposes is that I needed a sleeping pill that I could opt to take at 3 or 4 AM after trying unsucessfully to get to sleep at my normal bedtime of 1:30 or 2:00 AM. In the past year and a half, I've taken maybe a grand total of 10 Sonatas.

I also tried Melatonin at a 1mg dose for about a month or two to try to help with sleep maintenance insomnia once the most critical stage of the War on Insomnia was over and the insomnia was largely on the run except for some persistent continued waking in the middle and later half of the night. For me the melatonin didn't do a damn thing except aggravate my TMJ rather significantly. I see psychologist for anger management issues and to keep me honest in my efforts to keep the insomnia under control, and when I told him in May or June 2011 that my TMJ headaches were beginning to ramp up for some unknown reason, he's the one who suggested stopping the melatonin because apparently TMJ problems are not that uncommon of a side affect of melatonin.

When I started my War on Insomnia I was unwilling to take a sleeping pillow on any kind of a regular or even semi-regular basis. But I also knew that the insomnia wasn't going away on it's own. Since I preferred a long term, drug free approach, cognifitve behavior therapy for insomnia was the answer. It's not a panacea and it won't work for everybody. But it is worth a try---particularly if you are willing to do some hard work at changing your behaviors.

[Sloop]

Chiming in at last.

I also tried Melatonin at a 1mg dose for about a month or two to try to help with sleep maintenance insomnia once the most critical stage of the War on Insomnia was over and the insomnia was largely on the run except for some persistent continued waking in the middle and later half of the night. For me the melatonin didn't do a damn thing except aggravate my TMJ rather significantly.

Was it SUBLINGUAL melatonin? I ask because I too never had any luck at all with regular Melatonin. But the sublingual works in a NY minute.

[Sloop]

Sorry Sloop, but I doubt it that it was from Ambien.

Well there is no question it was the Ambien that put her into such a deep sleep that a bomb wouldn't have woken her. She had been taking it for about two years, during which time she had MANY episodes of very strange behavior. I will mention just a couple in a minute, but there were many times when I tried to wake her, for things like taking a phone call from our daughter, when I could not get her awake at all.

Here is just two examples of bizarre behavior:
1. One night, about an hour after she had retired (or so I thought), I was startled to hear the smoke alarm go off. I was in my office. I found her trying to make bacon with a fire raging in a frying pan. I quickly got the pan doused in the sink. She was totally incoherent and to this day accuses me of making this story up.
2. Another night, again about an hour after she supposedly retired, I found her in the bedroom packing and unpacking her purse with all of her jewelry. Again, totally incoherent -- just gibberish.

Maybe she is in the minority with regard to bad experiences with Ambien -- but I had been warned by my daughter not to let her use the stuff. After it almost killed her, I finally did my own research on Ambien.

I had to learn the hard way. So I offer this as a true account to oppose all the support for use of that drug. CAVEAT EMPTOR

[MaxDarkside]

So I offer this as a true account to oppose all the support for use of that drug. CAVEAT EMPTOR

Patrick Kennedy probably would agree with you...
"Representative Patrick J. Kennedy crashed his car into a traffic barrier on Capitol Hill in the early morning hours on Thursday. He said he was apparently disoriented because he had been taking Ambien"
Sleep driving?!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/05/washi ... nnedy.html

My wife has worked in the medical field for about 30 years, including ER Health Unit Coordinator in Level I Trauma Centers. She has lots of stories about peeps with Ambien on board.

[robysue]

Chiming in at last.

I also tried Melatonin at a 1mg dose for about a month or two to try to help with sleep maintenance insomnia once the most critical stage of the War on Insomnia was over and the insomnia was largely on the run except for some persistent continued waking in the middle and later half of the night. For me the melatonin didn't do a damn thing except aggravate my TMJ rather significantly.

Was it SUBLINGUAL melatonin? I ask because I too never had any luck at all with regular Melatonin. But the sublingual works in a NY minute.

Yes it was SUBLINGUAL melatonin. And it didn't do a thing for me except make my TMJ's start clenching even more than normal.

I don't doubt that melatonin---sublingual or otherwise---works great for some people. Maybe even most people. But there are some of us for whom it does not work well and/or it causes some rather unacceptable side affects.

[MaxDarkside]

sleep maintenance insomnia once the most critical stage of the War on Insomnia was over and the insomnia was largely on the run except for some persistent continued waking in the middle and later half of the night.

So you call persistent continued waking in the middle / later part of the nocturnal rest period "sleep maintenance insomnia", yes? I'm having that now and it's not quite but almost bothersome. It's just wake for a few moments, sleep for an hour, repeat, on an hour or two cycle.

[kaiasgram]

robysue may mention this in her insomnia article, but just in case: You can help your brain make more of its own natural melatonin by making sure lights start going down in the evening as you get closer to bedtime, and that the room you sleep in is as dark as possible. Darkness tells our brain to make melatonin. A friend just loaned me her special dawn simulation light because it also has a 'simulated dusk' setting. As the brightness gradually goes down (over a 30 or 45 or 60 minute period that you choose), that too signals the brain to crank out some melatonin. I'll post later on whether it proves helpful to me over time.

[shb]

I've been on 3mg Time release MElatonin each night for about a month now... It helps - but doesn't fix the problem. In that time my ZEO scores have improved on average - but I still get the ocassional score in the 50's . I'm still suffering. I thought about moving to 5mg Time release - so tried taking 2 x 3mg TR - before I ordered.... it resulting in a bad score zeo = 69.. then the next night (back on 1 x 3mg TR) I scored 108 (second highest ever) with a nice architecture and just 3 wakes in 9 hours of sleep... I wish could explain that ? So now I have decided to stick with 1 x 3mg melatonin (time release) before bed. And work on the hygiene factors..

I find paracetamol (a single tablet 500mg) helps get back to sleep...

Also, I have ordered a bottle of 5-HTP tablets - just because lots ppl seem to rave they are great for insomnia. They are likely to take another week or more to arrive. Anyone have any thoughts on 5-HTP ? Or using paracetamol too often ?